We all sucked once upon a time

I've made a new best internet friend recently. The last time I had so much in common with a person I had never met before it was Steve and now we run a business together so I always think of it as a good thing. We both love live music a goddamn hell of a lot and are striving to build up, with what little resources we have available to us, a live music scene which is open and available to all of those people who always wanted to be on a sweaty stage in front of a bunch of drunks and burst their eardrums but never could. It's a really difficult thing to do though. It shouldn't be. So I'll share a little embarrassment on myself and along the way hopefully inspire even just one person who is on the fence about starting a new band.

We all sucked once. There was a time too many years ago when all I wanted to do was play in a band that was just like mxpx. The problem was I didn't really know how to write songs, how to play the guitar properly, what was involved in recording songs, how to go about getting shows or what to do on a stage. That meant that I sucked at being a musician, but guess what, I didn't give a shit because every Saturday me and three friends would cram into our 15 year old drummers shed at his house and play our crappy songs and most of Life In General and we had the best time. As far as we were concerned we were a band, even though we sounded like this:

Yep that's pretty bad. But we were playing music and fucking around with all our friends and that's what mattered to us. I really didn't know about how to get gigs and we only played a few actual shows supporting another friends band and I wish to high heaven that we could have done more but we didn't know any promoters putting on shows around town - or even what a promoter was - and we had no real outlet that we were aware of.

cut to 7 years later and the quality of bands I was playing in got a lot better. mostly due to me getting better (see my previous post on that) and being able to interact with more talented musicians. This was not an overnight thing. I was passionate about music for several years and it took me a long time to learn the ropes. I have been through several bands with several differing levels of motivation and have scores of EPs to show for it but still I have never had a promoter actively look to put on upcoming talent, even though the songs I was playing went from crappy to more like this:



Well now people are offering that opportunity. 13 Stitches and Ipswich Punk Shows are giving that opportunity to bands that was like gold dust and still is in most instances. If you aren't sure of how to transition from playing in a shed with your mates to playing an honest to goodness show with established bands then this is where you need to be. For the first time since I started handing demos into venues there are promoters in the world who will take a brand new bands hand and walk them through the process, giving the best advice they can think to give along the way. There is a network of established and up and coming bands all willing to have a new band take up a support slot and gain experience in all sizes of venue. It's there for the taking and if you enjoy playing the music you love then it's your best opportunity to get out there and do it.

Some bands may be scared from hearing stories about the Mondo culture and pay for play shows and you should be because that sort of nonsense is rampant and preys on brand new acts. But there are promotions companies out there that will actively fight against this and teach you what to look for in the process. They are only an instant message away and they are totally on your side.

So record yourselves on your phone at a practice. Get a mate to take a few photos of you and make yourself a Facebook page. Get a Soundcloud account and putting your crappy demos on there. You can worry about improving things and having better quality everything once you're out there and getting things done. Believe me when I say there's nothing better than having people stand and appreciate your music. Everything else is secondary.